Aaaaaaaaaargh!

I just got in to Jeonju from Seoul. I had a completely useless visit that I managed to salvage in a couple of ways…

1. I studied Korean more than I have in weeks. Good idea, that bringing a book along with me.

2. I practiced speaking Korean more than I have in months… a very friendly and talkative high school girl on the train, an off-duty cop showing me the way to where I had to go, and a kid on the bus all chatted with me at length. It was much better than I remember being capable of doing in the past, as in the topic strayed from them asking me the standard questions to me asking them questions about their life, work or study, and so on. It was cool. I kind of felt like Frodo Baggins, meeting all these nice and friendly and helpful people who gave me aid or at least asylum from the stupidity of the trip I ended up making.

3. I managed to meet one of my friends who lives in Seoul, Hyun Hwa. It was really good to see her and have breakfast together. Sadly we didn’t manage to meet Sun Hwa, but we will all meet next time I go to Seoul.

4. I started to reconsider picking up that vocal effects pedal. If I wait a few weeks I may be able to just throw myself into buying a nice, small-but-powerful digital effects processor, and maybe that would just be the wiser choice, though I am leery about sinking more more into music gear. I need to do some more research about how I could set up controls on it, as I want something for performance and not just for studio work… pedals and foot switches instead of knobs and buttons.

5. I found a good saxophone repair shop in Seoul, of course at the Nagwon Shinjang. I switched repair shops to Mikwang Akgi, but I highly recommend nobody go there for repair work. Even though they had ample opportunity, they didn’t let me know that they weren’t fixing my damn horn, and moreover when I got it back from them, it was MORE damaged than when I dropped it off. However, I know a good place and can recommend it highly:Chun Il Musical Instrument Co., at the Nagwon Shijang.

Anyway… nothing much else to say. I’m on the Led Zeppelin Club’s computer posting this while waiting for our rehearsal to start. We don’t know when we are playing but the owner’s being interviewed so we need to wait before we can start rehearsal. Anyway, tonight we play here with two other bands and tomorrow we’ll be playing at 2 Be 1, opening for Cocoa Cocore along with, uh, I can’t remember. Anyway, I’m gonna go warm up the horn.